DeLay "Admonished" By House Ethics Committee

Last night, apparently while everyone was glued to their TVs for the Kerry/Bush debate, the U.S. House Ethics Committee "admonished" Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay for committing what any fair-minded observer would call political bribery ... strong-arming another Republican member of the House last November 22nd by offering to help the congressman's son if the congressman would in turn vote for the President's prescription drug bill. That bill passed the House by the smallest of margins.

"Admonished" in this context means the Ethics Committee had so much dirt they couldn't just file the complaint in a government-issued garbage can without bringing opprobium on themselves. But "admonished" means approximately the same as "Would you lower those Venetian blinds, please?"

Not only is this a whitewash, it must have been an inside deal as well, with DeLay agreeing to plead guilty, as it were: "In a statement, Mr. DeLay said that he had not meant to violate House rules and that the panel had never ruled on this type of activity before." For its part, the Ethics Committee "recommended no further action against Mr. DeLay."

So much for ethics in the modern, Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The most despicable "players" in all this ethics whitewash, though, are the Democrat members of this committee. They are the poster boys for all we find laughable in Congressional Democrats (which is a lo-o-o-ong list), and for their moral clarity, may Howard Dean serve them canapes forever in hell.

The Ethics Committee is also "now weighing whether to pursue an inquiry into another complaint against [DeLay}." Yeah. We're holding our breath.